Penn State football slammed with NCAA sanctions

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

By RALPH D. RUSSO and TOM COYNE ~ Associated Press

People visit the Joe Paterno statue early Sunday July 22, 2012. in State College, Pa. The famed statue of Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium Sunday morning, eliminating a key piece of the iconography surrounding the once-sainted football coach accused of burying child sex abuse allegations against a retired assistant. (AP Photo/John Beale)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Penn State football was all but leveled Monday by an NCAA ruling that wiped away 14 years of coach Joe Paterno's victories and imposed a mountain of fines and penalties, crippling a program whose pedophile assistant coach spent uncounted years molesting children, sometimes on university property.

The sanctions by the governing body of college sports, which capped eight months of turmoil on the central Pennsylvania campus, stopped short of delivering the "death penalty" of shutting down the sport. But the NCAA hit Penn State with $60 million in fines, ordered it out of the postseason for four years, and will cap scholarships at 20 below the normal limit for four years. The school also will be on probation for five years.

Any current or incoming football players are free to immediately transfer and compete at another school.

"Football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people," NCAA President Mark Emmert said as he announced the penalties at a news conference in Indianapolis.

The sanctions all stem from the case of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted last month of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. An investigation commissioned by the school and released July 12 found that Paterno, who died in January, and several other top officials at Penn State stayed quiet about accusations against Sandusky in 1998 and 2001.

The NCAA ruling holds the entire school community accountable for failing to protect children.

"Against this backdrop, Penn State accepts the penalties and corrective actions announced today by the NCAA," Penn State President Rodney Erickson said in a statement. "With today's announcement and the action it requires of us, the University takes a significant step forward."

The Big Ten announced that Penn State would not be allowed to share in the conference's bowl revenue during the NCAA's postseason ban, an estimated loss of about $13 million. And the NCAA reserved the right to add additional penalties.

Emmert fast-tracked penalties rather than go through the usual circuitous series of investigations and hearings. The NCAA said the $60 million is equivalent to the annual gross revenue of the football program. The money must be paid into an endowment for external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at Penn State.

By vacating 112 Penn State victories from 1998-2011, the sanctions cost Paterno 111 wins. Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden will now hold the top spot in the NCAA record book with 377 major-college wins. Paterno, who was fired days after Sandusky was charged, will be credited with 298 wins.

The scholarship reductions mean Penn State's roster will be capped at 65 scholarship players beginning in 2014. The normal scholarship limit for major college football programs is 85. Playing with 20 less is devastating to a program that tries to compete at the highest level of the sport.

In comparison, the harsh NCAA sanctions placed upon USC several years ago left the Trojans with only 75 scholarships per year over a three-year period.

The postseason ban is the longest handed out by the NCAA since it gave a four-year ban to Indiana football in 1960.

Bill O'Brien, who was hired to replace Paterno, now faces the daunting task of building future teams with severe limitations, and trying to keep current players from fleeing to other schools. Star players such as tailback Silas Redd and linebacker Gerald Hodges are now essentially free agents.

"I knew when I accepted the position that there would be tough times ahead," O'Brien said. "But I am committed for the long term to Penn State and our student athletes."

Players left a team meeting on campus in State College, Pa., without talking to reporters. Penn State's season starts Sept. 1 at home against Ohio University.

The sanctions came a day after the school took down the statue of Paterno that stood outside Beaver Stadium and was a rallying point for the coaches' supporters throughout the scandal.

At a student union on campus, several dozen alumni and students gasped, groaned and whistled as they watched Emmert's news conference.

"It was kind of just like a head shaker," said Matt Bray, an 18-year-old freshman from West Chester, Pa. "You knew it was coming, but it was hard to hear."

Emmert had earlier said he had "never seen anything as egregious" as the horrific crimes of Sandusky and the cover-up by Paterno and others at the university, including former Penn State President Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley.

The Penn State investigation headed by former FBI Director Louis Freeh said school officials kept what they knew from police and other authorities for years, enabling the abuse to go on.

There had been calls across the nation for Penn State to receive the "death penalty," and Emmert had not ruled out that possibility as late as last week -- though Penn State did not fit the criteria for it. That punishment is for teams that commit a major violation while already being sanctioned.

"This case is obviously incredibly unprecedented in every aspect of it," Emmert said, "as are these actions that we're taking today."

Penn State football under Paterno was built on -- and thrived upon -- the premise that it did things the right way. That it was not a football factory where only wins and losses determined success. Every major college football program tries to send that message, but Penn State built its brand on it.

Paterno's "Grand Experiment" was about winning with integrity, graduating players and sending men into the world ready to succeed in life, not just football. But he still won a lot -- a record-setting 409 victories.

The NCAA had never sanctioned, or seriously investigated Penn State. Few, if any, national powers could make that claim.

Southern California, Ohio State, Alabama, all have run afoul of the NCAA. Even Notre Dame went on probation for two years after a booster lavished gifts on players in the 1990s.

The harshest penalty handed down to a football program came in the '80s, when the NCAA shut down SMU's team for a year. SMU football has never gotten back to the level of success it had before the "death penalty."

Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.

I think the punishment is appropriate. I've got NO problem with the NCAA making it perfectly clear that kind of thing will NOT be tolerated. Too bad Joe's not here to experience it.

-- Posted by dchannes on Mon, Jul 23, 2012, at 9:00 AM

Ok, maybe NOW Pinkle will retract his support of Paterno.

-- Posted by wuzthinking on Mon, Jul 23, 2012, at 9:06 AM

Okay, I know I sound dumb but what is the death penalty in regards to football and Penn State? When I hear death penalty I don't think of football and a university!

-- Posted by Spinning on Mon, Jul 23, 2012, at 9:37 AM

Exclusion from NCAA football from now on.

-- Posted by dchannes on Mon, Jul 23, 2012, at 11:10 AM

Thank you dehannes! I'm not a football fan as you can tell!

-- Posted by Spinning on Mon, Jul 23, 2012, at 4:36 PM

Sandusky was proven guilty Coconut Telegraph!

-- Posted by Spinning on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 5:29 AM

The death penalty means no football for one year and can be repeated many years.

This show emphasis on sports can be overdone, Joe was too puffed up.

-- Posted by Dexterite1 on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 5:44 AM

By the NCAA's own admission the "death penalty" was not enough in this case. The sanctions levied against Penn State are much worse than a one year suspension of the football program. The University will not recover from these sanctions for decades and it will affect all student-athletes at Penn State since the football program provided most of the funding for everything else. Tragic situation for all involved but mostly for the innocent victims of these horrific crimes.

-- Posted by Dkaverman on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 7:45 AM

I think the NCAA overreacted as well. $60 Million in fines, penalties and sanctions over the criminal actions of one man and possibly 3 others (Spanier, Curley, Schultz).

An undergraduate assistant coach caught Sandusky in the act. Next day he reports it to Paterno. Next day Paterno (or 2 days - not clear) reports it to school administration. School administrators drop the ball on this and it never moves forward.

What's wrong with people today? Isn't justice enough? Let investigators do their job, let prosecutors do theirs and let the juries decide. But no - we've got to do something politically correct with a mob mentality. Hang the university! Hang Joe Paterno!

I was asked yesterday wouldn't I be furious if it was my child? Yes - I would be out for blood. That is why victims don't sit on juries or act as prosecutors.

Again - Sandusky should rot in prison forever. And possibly some of the employees that didn't move this forward or covered it up. The NCAA is an ATHLETIC organization. This had nothing to do with athletics. It's a money grab and publicity stunt.

-- Posted by Dug on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 8:02 AM

I would refer those interested to www.ncaa.org for the Association's perspective on this issue, including their authority and obligation to take action in response to the horrific crimes that were committed.

-- Posted by Dkaverman on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 8:37 AM

This had everything to do with athletics. This was a story about how a coach and higher ups at the university not only looked the other way, but attempted to cover up and withhold information from police officers in order to protect their sacred football team, which in turn put more kids in harms way and enabled a serial petaphile to use the sacred status of the football team as leverage to lure in and keep his victims close.

I say don't take away the wins, because that punishes the players who earned them, but definitely punish the football program and make a statement. Btw I read an article from a previous employee in charge of student punishments who was fired by Spanier because she tried to punish several of the players for beating the crap out of people at a party. Paterno instead made the players pick up trash in the stadium before practice and got the woman fired because she remained adamant about punishing them. Make no mistake- looking away to benefit football was a recurring theme... Just like SEMO. Its become a cultural problem that needs to be stopped.

-- Posted by semo09 on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 8:47 AM

From the NCAA site on this:

"Penn State's sanctions are both punitive -- intended to punish -- and corrective, intended to remediate the 'sports is king' culture that led to failures in leadership."

So the NCAA - an ATHLETIC organization - is punishing a university to the tune of $60 Million and implementing devastating sanctions, etc. for this reason - "to remediate the 'sport is king' culture that led to failures in leadership".

If that were true (and it's not in my opinion) then they should levy a $100 million fine to Ohio State, Florida State, Nebraska, etc. etc. that have a "sport is king" culture.

If a professor of psychology was caught abusing children and reported to school administration that covered it up would the NCAA fine the school $60 million for that? Nope.

It's a money grab and publicity stunt and none of their business. Let the justice system decide. This is not an athletic issue - it's an horrific criminal act by Sandusky who will never see the outside of a prison for the rest of his life. And possibly 3 school administrators that did nothing about it.

-- Posted by Dug on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 8:48 AM

Agree semo09

As punishment, those guys in leadership positions, lost their jobs and face criminal prosecution. Except Joe, he got out of that (maybe). And the report says he was part of the cover-up.

How many kids could have been spared if these guys weren't so selfish? And if this action doesn't deter other athletic departments and universities from doing the same thing, then the punishment is still not strong enough.

-- Posted by Deb56 on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 10:42 AM

If you knew.... universities all over the country have sent out massive mails to faculty, staff and coaches about reporting incidents like this - all BEFORE the NCAA's money grab and Sandusky's trial.

There shouldn't be an administrator out there that is stupid enough to attempt a cover up like this.

Reporting the incident like McQueary and Paterno both DID (and testimony has proven they did) is hardly a "cover up" unless you have a different definition. The higher ups appear to have done the covering up.

-- Posted by Dug on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 11:48 AM

If you have first hand knowledge of a felony that has been committed aren't you legally responsible for reporting that felony to law enforcement? Just asking - individuals in the Penn State case may have reported what they knew to their administrative superiors but FAILED in their legal responsibility to report what they knew to law enforcement.

-- Posted by Dkaverman on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 4:38 PM

From Newsday

"STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Longtime Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and other high-ranking university officials "repeatedly concealed critical facts" about Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of children to avoid "bad publicity," according to an internal investigation released Thursday.

The 267-page report is the result of an eight-month university-funded investigation by former FBI director Louis Freeh into the school's handling of Sandusky allegations that span more than a decade."